New Wave - Various Artists (1977)

New Wave - Various Artists

Vertigo

Released 1977

Tracklist

A1 –Ramones - Judy Is A Punk    
A2 –Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer    
A3 –Patti Smith - Piss Factory    
A4 –New York Dolls - Personality Crisis   
A5 –The Runaways - Hollywood    
A6 –Skyhooks - Horror Movie    
A7 –Richard Hell &The Voidoids - Love Comes In Spurts    
A8 –Little Bob Story - All Or Nothing    
B1 –The Boomtown Rats - Looking After No 1    
B2 –Talking Heads - Love Goes To Building On Fire    
B3 –The Damned - New Rose    
B4 –Ramones - Suzy Is A Headbanger  
B5 –Dead Boys -  All This And More    
B6 –The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action    
B7 –The Runaways - Cherry Bomb    
B8 –New York Dolls - Who Are The Mystery Girls?

I actually wasn't aware that there were differences to the album when it was released in other Countries and after searching around this is what I discovered. I've put links in for the songs that were added to the mix.

The French release of the album was exactly the same as the UK version.

The German version had a different tracklist:

It kicked off with Sheena is a Punk Rocker (Ramones) rather than Judy is a Punk, Side 2 opened with The Saints' I'm Stranded and closed with Slow Down (The Jam). There was only one track from The Runaways and it was neither of the ones that featured on the UK version. The German pressing had Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin.

The Australian pressing of the album did not contain the Skyhooks Horror Show track instead it was replaced with a second track from Flamin' Groovies - Don't You Lie To Me.

The Dutch release only had 12 tracks and some very different songs to the UK release: 

Ramones tracks were different, the Stanley Frank track was an interesting inclusion, as was The Saints and surprisingly (She's Gonna) Do You In instead of Lookin' After Number 1 for the Boomtown Rats.

Tracklist

A1  Little Bob Story - All Or Nothing 
A2  Ramones  - California Sun

A3 The Damned - New Rose    
A4 Richard Hell And The Void-Oids - Love Comes In Spurts    
A5 Patti Smith - Piss Factory    
A6 Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer    
B1 Stanley Frank - S'Cooldays    
B2  Talking Heads - Love Goes To Building On Fire    
B3 Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker  
B4  Dead Boys - All This And More   
B5  The Saints - I'm Stranded    
B6 The Boomtown Rats - (She's Gonna) Do You In

The Japanese pressing of the album only included 14 tracks and again there were some differences to the UK release. There were no tracks from The Runaways (which was surprising considering how popular they were there!) and no Flamin' Groovies or Skyhooks either. Boomtown Rats had two songs and Ramones had three tracks:

Tracklist

A1 –Ramones - Judy Is A Punk    
A2 –Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer    
A3 –Patti Smith - Piss Factory    
A4 –The Boomtown Rats - (She's Gonna) Do You In    
A5 –New York Dolls - Personality Crisis 
A6 –Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Love Comes In Spurts    
A7 –Little Bob Story - All Or Nothing  
B1 –Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker 
B2 –The Boomtown Rats - Lookin' After No. 1    
B3 –Talking Heads - Love Goes To Building On Fire    
B4 –The Damned - New Rose    
B5 –Ramones - Let's Dance    
B6 –Dead Boys - All This And More  
B7 –New York Dolls - Who Are The Mystery Girls?

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This morning I was thinking about this particular compilation.  JC Carroll of The Members was talking on his FB page about discovering a copy of the Streets Compilation that was put out by Beggars Banquet in 1977 (and I think that was the first Punk Compilation on an Indie label that was released. I discounted any Stiff Records Compilations as they generally featured artists signed to their own label whilst the Streets album had bands from many Indie labels or no labels at all and not just Beggars Banquet). It got me thinking about New Wave as I seem to recall that it might have been the first Punk/New Wave Compilation to come out on one of the major labels.

Most of the tracks on it date between 1973-1977 and are pretty good, though I'm still not convinced by the Skyhooks track Horror Movie (1975). It was actually quite funny seeing New York Dolls, Skyhooks, Patti Smith and Flamin' Groovies (and possibly The Runaways) being touted as New Wave as they clearly Pre-date the rise of of Punk/New Wave in the UK at the time and I guess also in the States.

Whatever the case for why a particular band was included it remains a great LP in my book and just listening to it afresh today brought back a lot of great memories of being a 14 year old kid running around South East London at the time.

 

All Links and Playlist updated Feb 7th 2024